20 January 2024: Day 2, Arrive in Johannesburg, South Africa — Road Scholar Southern Africa Birding Safari. Click here to see (generally) where I am today.

Barring something unexpected, I’ll arrive in Johannesburg today at 4:05pm South Africa time (9:05am Pittsburgh time). I’m sure to see a Life Bird right off the bat, even from the airplane window. There are a handful of birds at the airport that I’ve already seen — rock pigeons, cattle egrets, common mynas (seen in Hawaii) and house sparrows — but all the rest are new to me. Crossing an ocean and changing hemispheres guarantees that nearly every bird is a Life Bird.

O.R. Tambo International Airport is an eBird hotspot, perhaps because so many (compulsive?) birders pass through here. Here are five birds that everyone sees at the airport — birds of the Old World, not the New World, so even if they resemble a North American bird they’re not in the same genus.

Laughing doves (Spilopelia senegalensis) resemble mourning doves (Zenaida macroura) but their throats are fancier when they puff them in courtship. Instead of mourning they laugh.

Little swifts (Apus affinis) are similar to our chimney swifts (Chaetura pelagica) though slightly smaller with white throats and rumps. The white features are not easy to see against the sky.

You can tell that the pied crow (Corvus albus) is a crow but he looks mighty different. He wears a white vest and is heavier then our American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos).

We don’t have the southern masked weaver (Ploceus velatus) in North America. His beauty and size put the house sparrow to shame.

House sparrows were imported to South Africa just as they were to North America. Why did someone bother to bring in house sparrows when South Africa has a more beautiful native — the Cape sparrow (Passer melanurus) also called “mossie.”

By the time I’m on the road to the hotel I’ll have seen at least five Life Birds.

(photos from Wikimedia Commons; click on the captions to see the originals)

19 January 2024: Day 1, Fly to Johannesburg, South Africa — Road Scholar Southern Africa Birding Safari

Today I’m on my way to Road Scholar’s Southern Africa Birding Safari: From Zimbabwe to Zambia & Beyond. The tour begins tomorrow in Johannesburg, South Africa but it will take me 24 hours to get there.

Africa is huge — more than three times the size of the continental U.S. — so we will see only a small part of it. For most of the trip we’ll be inside the red circle (below) in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana. All four countries meet at the only international quadripoint in the world, the Four Corners of Africa.

After Johannesburg we will fly to Victoria Falls to begin our regional tour of birding hotspots and national parks in safari vehicles, by boat and occasionally on foot. Late January is the rainy season and the height of summer with highs as much as 100°F and lows in the 60s.

We hope to see the Big 5 mammals at Hwange, Chobe and Mosi-Oa-Tunya National Parks — elephant, lion, leopard, Cape buffalo and rhinoceros — plus assorted other critters on our travels. Here a just a few from my Wish List.

We’ll also see birds! Up to 400 species and nearly all of them Life Birds. Most are unique to Africa. Some have migrated from Europe or Asia to spend the winter. I hope to see the endangered gray-crowned crane (Balearica regulorum), at top, and the birds in this slideshow below plus many more.

Because of the 7-hour time zone difference and the on-the-go birding schedule I’ve written all 15 days of articles in advance. I’ll post to Facebook and X (Twitter) when I get a chance but I can’t guarantee it. If you don’t see me on social media, look for my latest posts here on the blog’s home page.

For the next two+ weeks I’ll be mostly off the grid.

UPDATE on 2 Feb: The only bird in the slideshow that I did not see was the white stork.

(photo and maps from Wikimedia Commons and Road Scholar. Click on the captions to see the originals.)